Let Comfort Food Season begin...

Last week, we had a bit of a cold spell... I'm talking hat and gloves, down coats and scarves cold spell.  Looking ahead to the winter, it definitely wasn't as cold as the low temperatures we'll see far too soon - but still, we weren't quite ready yet for the chill.

Cold weather is, of course, an opportunity to make some yummy comfort food.  One of my favorites is Shepherd's Pie, although since I don't like lamb I never make it according to the "traditional" recipe.  I did a little research to see what the origin of Shepherd's Pie is and found out a few interesting things... the dish was first referred to as "cottage pie" as a modest meal in Great Britain, back in the late 18th century.  It was made with leftover meat, and featured a mashed potato crust both lining the pan and serving as a top crust.  Potatoes didn't make it to Europe until the 1500s, when the Spanish brought them back from the New World.  Now, "cottage pie" is used when referring to the recipe when made with beef, and shepherd's pie refers to the recipe when made with lamb.

In reviewing the recipes that are out there, there is a wide variety of ingredients to accompany the meat.  Some of the more basic ones layer meat, corn, and then the potatoes, but that strikes me as a bit... bland.  Others add a little too much gravy for my taste.  Nearly all of the recipes call for butter and milk to be added to the potatoes, and some even call for an egg (or an egg plus egg yolk) to the potatoes to help bind the potatoes and keep them together, and some recipes call for Parmesan cheese to be added to the potato mixture or sprinkled on top.  I prefer a recipe that has some of the classic flavorings - carrots, onions, Worcestershire sauce, tomatoes - and I never add butter to my potatoes.


For this version of the recipe, I decided to amp up the potato layer by adding some parsnips to the potatoes; I have been using lowfat buttermilk (Kate's brand) in lieu of butter and milk in mashed potatoes for some time, and that works well in this recipe - I did add an egg, though, to help the topping stay together as a crust - it's a nice touch.  I also used the classic flavor of thyme along with some Worcestershire sauce to add depth to the "gravy".

This recipe is pretty forgiving, and is a good opportunity to use up veggies that would otherwise go to waste, like ends of celery, turnip, corn, or butternut squash.  You could also certainly substitute sweet potatoes for the regular potatoes, and then complement by adding a bit of cinnamon to the meat mixture.

So here's the recipe - it makes about 6 servings if accompanied by a veggie or salad, and 4 if on its own.  Leftovers are great for a take-to-work lunch.

Ingredients

• 3-4 medium Russet potatoes, peeled and diced (you can also use Yukon Gold or Red Russet - when I use these varieties, I leave them unpeeled and mash them with the peels)
• 2-3 medium sized parsnips, peeled and diced
• 1 lb. ground turkey (you can use turkey breast, but ground turkey - including the darker cuts - has a slightly better flavor and the fat lends a nice "mouth feel"; a lean ground beef would also work well)
• 1 onion, diced
• 3 medium carrots, peeled and diced
• 1 package sliced mushrooms (optional)
• 1 T. dried thyme 
• 1 t. poultry seasoning (I used Penzeys, but Bell's works also
• 1-1/2 c. chicken broth
• 2 T. tomato paste
• 1 T. Worcestershire sauce
• splash of dry red wine
• 1 cup frozen peas
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 - 1 c. lowfat buttermilk
• 1 egg

Directions
1.  Heat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Place potatoes and parsnips in a medium saucepan, and just cover with water.  Place over medium-high heat, and cook until both parsnips and potatoes are tender, or a fork can pierce them easily.
2.  While the potatoes and parsnips cook, heat a large skillet; spray with cooking spray.  Add the onion and carrots, and saute until the onions start to get translucent.  Add the mushrooms and combine, adding some salt and pepper and stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.  If  the mixture starts to stick, add a bit of chicken broth or additional cooking spray. 


3.  Check the potatoes and parsnips - if they are done, drain them and then start to mash with a potato masher.  Add the buttermilk, about 1/4 cup at a time, and mash to incorporate; continue to add buttermilk until the potatoes are mashed smooth; add salt and pepper to taste, and set aside.

4.  Once the vegetables are soft (the mushrooms will shrink considerably), add the ground turkey to the skillet, and break it up with a wooden spoon or spatula so that it cooks into crumbles; stir frequently so that the meat continues to break up and cook through.

5.  Once the meat has finished cooking, pour in about a cup of the chicken broth, and stir in the tomato paste, herbs, splash of wine, and Worcestershire sauce until the tomato paste is fully incorporated.  Turn the heat down to medium-low and allow the mixture to simmer for about 20 minutes, or until it thickens a bit.  Add frozen peas and stir t combine.

6. Spray a casserole dish with cooking spray; pour the turkey mixture into the dish.  Add the egg to the potato mixture and stir well to combine.

 7.  Spread the potato mixture over the turkey mixture, and make some swishy shapes in the potatoes...or not.  If you wanted to get really fancy, you could pipe the potato mixture over the top with a pastry bag...but that's just another thing to clean, so save it for when you're in a cleaning mood (or when someone else is doing the dishes).  Put the dish into the oven and bake for about 35 minutes on the center oven rack, or until the sauce bubbles around the edges...you *might* want to put a baking sheet or sheet of foil on the rack underneath the dish in case the sauce really bubbles and wants to travel outside of the casserole dish...When it comes out of the oven, it will look a little something like this:

And when you put some on your plate it will look a little something like THIS!

This version of Shepherd's pie is well paired with a dry red wine; I have a French Malbec that I love, but some of the Italian reds would also work well.

Careful not to burn your tongue as you enjoy this - bon appetit!

Easy weeknight chili / Back to business

Wow.  I knew it had been a while since I'd posted anything, but... November 2011?  Almost one year?  That's way too long.

So I'm here with a kind of boring post, but with a commitment to post more often...I swear!

E left for London today, and it's kind of a rainy, gray and drizzly day, so I wanted to eat something tasty and comforting, but which was healthy and didn't take too long to cook.  So...scanning the fridge, I found some ground turkey breast, fresh carrots and onions from the farmer's market.  At first I thought I'd make a Shepherd's Pie, but realized I didn't have any eggs...so, I'll have to make that another night.

What I did have on hand were some black beans and kidney beans, and some tomato sauce  - so chili it was!  This went from pantry to table in about half an hour, including hands-off simmering time.  I served it over steamed butternut squash, but it would go great with steamed brown rice, or over a baked white or sweet potato.  Because I used only cooking spray there's no added fat, so the recipe is full of protein, fiber, and vitamins - you can up the vitamin and fiber content by throwing in some canned pumpkin puree.  YUM.

OK, on to the recipe:

Easy weeknight chili
Serves 4-6

Ingredients
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 carrot, peeled and diced
Salt and pepper
1 lb. ground turkey or turkey breast
1 15 oz. can kidney beans, drained
1 15 oz. can black beans, drained
1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
1 T. chili powder (I used Penzeys Chili 9000)
1/2 t. ground chipotle pepper

Directions
1.  Heat a large skillet or medium saucepan over medium-high heat.  Coat pan with cooking spray, and add onions, garlic, and carrot.  Saute until soft, being careful to stir frequently so that nothing sticks (add more cooking spray if needed).  Season with salt and pepper
2.  Add turkey, and break it up, stirring frequently so that the meat cooks and crumbles
3.  Add beans, tomato sauce, and spices and stir to combine; add a little water if needed.
4.  Cover and simmer on medium-low heat for 10-15 minutes until heated through.  The longer this cooks the better the flavors will blend
5.  Serve over steamed brown rice, steamed butternut squash, or baked potato and enjoy!  Top with sour cream or plain yogurt if desired.

TIP - you could add some canned pumpkin puree to this either in addition to the tomato sauce or in place of part of it; that would add some extra fiber and nutrients, and who couldn't use some of that!

You can do them both ways...

Hey!  Get your mind out of the gutter.  I'm talking about food here!  More specifically, I'm talking about stuffed peppers.  They're a pretty easy dish to make, but I always forget that I have them in my rotation.  A few weeks ago, I bought some ground turkey and was feeling a little ho-hum about what I would make.  I think the inspiration came to me as I was flipping through a cookbook; I couldn't stand the thought of making yet another meat sauce for spaghetti, and my thoughts turned to the Mexican flavors I love.  So I thought some stuffed peppers would be a perfect way to combine boring ground turkey and delicious Mexican spices!

I've seen a couple of different stuffed pepper recipes; some can take quite a while, particularly if you stuff the peppers with raw meat and bake them in the oven.  But I have a quick recipe, too, where you cook the meat filling in a skillet and then add the stuffing to the pepper.  I like the baked version because it allows the pepper to sweeten a little bit and the flavors seem to come together a bit better.  But, after work, do you really want to wait over an hour for dinner to be ready?  Yeah, I didn't think so.  So, here you go... Stuffed Peppers Two Ways


Ingredients

• 1 pound ground turkey breast
• 4 bell peppers
• 1 cup cooked brown rice
• 1/2 cup salsa, or 1/2 cup diced tomatoes and 1 T. chili powder
• 1 cup shredded reduced fat cheddar cheese

Instructions:  The Long Way

1. Preheat the oven to 400.  Spray a pie plate or other baking dish with cooking spray.  Cut the top off of the peppers (about 1/4 to 1/2 inch) and remove seeds. Cut a sliver off of the bottom of each pepper so that it can stand in the baking dish.*
2. In a mixing bowl, combine the ground turkey, rice, salsa (or tomatoes and chili powder).  Divide the mixture evenly among all peppers.
3. Bake the peppers for 45 minutes to 1 hour, using a meat thermometer to test doneness (should be 165 degrees).  Sprinkle about 1/4 cup shredded cheese over the top of each pepper and then place under the broiler until the cheese melts. 

Instructions:  The Short Way

1. Heat a skillet sprayed with cooking spray.  When hot, add the ground turkey and saute, breaking up the meat, until cooked through.  Add the salsa (or tomatoes and chili powder) and rice, stir to combine, and simmer until heated through.
2. While the turkey is cooking, prepare the peppers as you would in step 1 of the Long Way, and place in a microwave-safe baking dish.  Cover the baking dish with plastic wrap and microwave for 3 minutes, or until the peppers are tender - not mushy soft, just enough that you could cut through easily with a fork or regular knife.
3. When the peppers are cooked, drain off any excess water and fill the peppers with the turkey mixture.  Top with cheese and cook under the broiler until the cheese melts.
4. See?  Isn't that faster?

*One note about the pepper prep, is you can cut them in half lenghtwise or leave them whole.  Up to you...

Sneaky Chili

Lately I haven't been getting enough veggies, and I was trying to think of a more interesting way to get them than green beans. One of my girlfriends who has kids was talking about a cookbook she has that helps parents "sneak" vegetables into kids' foods. So I'm thinking... I'm on a food processor kick (see the Madras Meatballs recipe) and I'm looking for something different to do with veggies. Why not put those together and think of a way to boost the nutrient content of something I love? And hence Sneaky Chili was born! The recipe is built very much in the same way Tasty Turkey Chili was, with similar technique... If you don't like the veggies I've selected, as my sister (who hates peppers and mushrooms) doesn't, use whatever veggies you have on hand that you like.

Sneaky Chili
Serves 4-6

Ingredients

• 1 lb. ground turkey breast (you can sub veggie crumbles or crumbled tofu)
• 2 small onions or 1 medium onion
• 1 T. canola oil
• 1 T. chili powder
  
• 1-2 cloves garlic
• 1 yellow or red bell pepper
• 2 carrots
• 2 parsnips
• 1 cup mushrooms (pre-sliced or roughly chopped whole ones)
• 2 T. tomato paste
• 1/4 c. tomato sauce
• 1 can (14.5 oz.) diced tomatoes with chiles

Directions

1. Peel and quarter onion, and mince in a food processor
2. In a skillet coated with cooking spray, saute the turkey, taking care to break it up into crumbles.
3. Heat a large saucepan over medium heat; add the olive oil and heat til shimmering. Add the onions and stir. Saute for 2-3 minutes; add tomato paste, chili powder, and garlic. Turn heat to low and cook while you prepare the veggies.
4. Trim the pepper, carrots, and parsnips and add to the food processor; add the mushrooms. Pulse until vegetables are minced.
5. Add the vegetables, diced tomatoes, and turkey to the onion-tomato mixture and stir to combine.
6. Simmer for 30-40 minutes, until the vegetables are all cooked through. Serve over brown rice or a baked sweet potato

Per Serving (assuming 6 servings): 169 calories, 15 g carbs, 3 g fat, 20 g protein, 3 g fiber

Madras Meatballs

So I just bought my first domain name - healthytastyeasy.com - and that was exciting. It got me to poke around and look at other foodies' blogs. I stumbled across nomnivorous, which I think is a nicely written, personable blog, and saw this recipe for Tikka Masala Meatballs (which in turn was inspired by Big Girls, Small Kitchen and Pretty Girls Use Knives). To me, cooking is about expressing yourself and trying new things. And like nomnivorous, I very seldom follow a recipe exactly. Besides, I typically stay in the European (French, Italian, German, Spanish) and Latin American cuisine genres - very seldom do I experiment with more Asian flavors. So - mainly because I didn't have exactly the same ingredients - I've tweaked the recipe very slightly. Here's my take on the recipe, which I'm calling Madras Meatballs. With some brown rice, the recipe makes four decent sized servings for dinner - but you could get away with six servings if you had a side dish or appetizer.

Ingredients Meatballs

• 3/4 c. oats
• 1 medium onion
• 1 lb. ground turkey breast (you could also use ground chicken breast)
  
• 1 egg
• 1 T. tomato paste
  
• 1 t. ginger
• 2 t. dried cilantro (or chopped fresh - 2 T.)
• 1 t. salt
• 2 cloves garlic (or equivalent pre-minced)
• 1 t. cumin

Sauce

• 2 medium onions
• 3 carrots
• 1 T. canola or other neutral vegetable oil
  
• 2 cloves garlic (or equivalent pre-minced)
• 1 t. cumin
• 2 t. dried cilantro (or chopped fresh - at least 2 T.)
• 1 - 2 t. hot curry powder (I used McCormick Hot Madras Curry powder) - use as much as you would like, depending on taste. E's not crazy about heat so I kept it closer to 1 t.
• 1 1/2 t. ground ginger (you can use fresh if you have it)
• 1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes with chiles (I used Trader Joe's fire roasted tomatoes with chiles)
  
• 1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes
• 1/2 c. light coconut milk

Directions

1. (Note: This recipe works really well if you use a food processor, but it's optional. My directions will assume you're using one.) Turn on your oven's broiler. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray the foil with cooking spray.
   
2. Place the oats in the food processor and pulse until they look like coarse flour. Pour the oats into a bowl for now.
3. Peel and quarter the onion. Place the onions in the food processor and pulse until they are minced.
4. Add the turkey, the processed oats, the egg, tomato paste, salt and spices to the onion mixture in the food processor. Pulse until all ingredients are incorporated.
5. You can make the meatballs any size you would like, I made smallish ones using a small cookie dough scoop. You could use an ice cream scoop, spoons, or your bare hands to shape the meatballs.
6. Place the meatballs on the prepared baking sheet (I ended up with 40 small ones) and cook under the broiler for about 10 minutes, watching to ensure they don't burn.
7. Wash out the food processor, you'll need it for the sauce! Peel and quarter two onions; remove the ends from the carrots, and peel if you'd like to (I didn't, I just washed them) and cut the carrots into 1-inch chunks. Place the onions and carrots in the food processor and pulse until they are minced. In a skillet, heat 1 T. canola oil over medium-high heat and add the onions and carrots. Add the garlic and other spices, stir to combine, and cook for about 5 minutes to allow the flavors to combine and heat up a bit.
   
8. Add both cans of tomatoes and the coconut milk, stir to combine, turn down the heat, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes to allow the flavors to blend. Add the meatballs to the sauce and simmer for another 15 minutes, until the meatballs are cooked through (they should have cooked pretty well under the broiler).
9. Serve over brown rice (I like to use Trader Joe's microwaveable pre-cooked brown rice). Have some plain yogurt on hand in case you went a little overboard with the spice - it'll help balance that heat.

Per serving: 319 calories, 9 g fat, 29 g carb, 32 g protein, 6 g fiber

Notes on this recipe:

• If you don't have diced tomatoes with chiles, you can use regular diced tomatoes and add chopped jalapenos, or crushed red pepper, or a pinch of cayenne, or just up the curry powder.
• If you don't have coconut milk, you could use regular milk, or you could just go all-tomato.
• You don't have to use diced tomatoes, you can use crushed or whole peeled and break them down yourself.
• Fresh herbs and spices or dried? Usually 1 t. of a dried herb is about as powerful as 1 T. fresh. Use your taste buds to guide you here.